Interview with Franco-Algerian Author Malika Mokeddem

Spring 2016 Grant Recipient

Graduate Student

Whitney Bevill (French) Urgent questions on migrancy have brought mass movement, the Mediterranean, and North Africa together in the political and academic spotlight. My dissertation explores nomadism in these spaces through the novels of Franco-Algerian author Malika Mokeddem. She treats the themes of home and belonging while pushing generic and linguistic conventions in order to reflect a nomadic literary style that creates textual movement and literature-charged spaces. Her work challenges the nationalist rhetoric surrounding identity and biopolitics, proposing the creation of a "nomadic self" that is free of national, religious, and gender constraints, demonstrating how space, freedom, movement, and text are inextricably intertwined.